After losing to arch rival La Salle last Saturday, Ateneo coach Norman Black warned his boys that unless they play tough defense, they may have to forget about scoring a “three-peat” in the UAAP basketball tournament.

“If you want to play for me, you have to play defense,” Black said after the Blue Eagles bowed to the Green Archers, 66-63, before a packed Araneta Coliseum crowd.

Black blamed his team’s defensive meltdown in the fourth period for the loss, their second in four games.

“It was the defense that let us down,” Black said of his team.

Ateneo appeared headed for victory when Nico Salva’s jumper put the Eagles ahead, 62-53, with less than four minutes left.

But the rookie-laden Archers made a dramatic comeback behind the hot shooting of sophomore guard Sam Marata.

Marata, who was named this week’s Player of the Week by the UAAP Press Corps, buried back-to-back triples with over a minute left to play to give La Salle the lead before making several defensive stops to complete the come-from-behind victory.

“Things such as not picking up your man on fastbreaks, not following around screens giving up wide open three-point shots,” Black rued.

The stunning defeat sent the Eagles into a share of the fourth to sixth spot with National University and University of Santo Tomas.

Aside from improving their defense, Black also said they need somebody to step up in scoring.

Although Justin Chua has responded well to the challenge after averaging 16.5 points in the last two games, the Eagles are still hoping to see more from veterans Eric Salamat and Ryan Buenafe, who both are averaging just seven points per game.

“We need Eric (Salamat) to step up more because we hope to have offense from him and also from Ryan (Buenafe) this season. It hasn’t come yet, but it’s still a long way to go,” Black said.

Ateneo tries to get back on the winning track when it goes up against the Bulldogs on Sunday.

“We have done a very good job over the years of bouncing back from losses so I don’t see any difference,” Black said. “We just figured out what we did wrong and try to fix it immediately for our next game.”